HALL IN HEADLINES
Michigan House Minority Leader Matt Hall (R-Kalamazoo) was back in the headlines in recent weeks, courtesy of the Daily Beast, which highlighted a domestic violence case from 2019, the victim of which eventually recanted so the state lawmaker faced no criminal charges. As the story was told, Hall and his girlfriend were in a car with the lawmaker driving on his way to a gambling event. His “dangerous” driving frightened his girlfriend who twice phoned 911 and recorded the encounter. Hall at one point grabbed her cell phone with such force that he broke the screen. An officer responding later to their house advised the girlfriend to find another place to stay for the night. One Republican stalwart we consulted, while not condoning Hall’s behavior, wrote the incident off as ‘old news’ about the third-term lawmaker. Others (namely the state Democratic party) saw fit to make it an issue in an email to Dem party followers in recent weeks. Hall was back in the news in mid-January when Richard Cutshaw announced he would be challenging the lawmaker in the party primary this August. Cutshaw – described by one party insider as a “wack job” – has said that prayer convinced him he had to run for the seat.